Thursday, March 27, 2014

It’s called “white space,” but it doesn’t have to be white. Are you using enough of it in your kids’ books? I’m going to show you five books that do a GREAT job with white space – in a couple of cases, becoming classics along the way.

And then, because (gasp!) creating white space is one of my weak points… I’m going to share with you not my own wisdom, but that of five experts who have Things to Say and manage to say them far better than I could.

To get us in the mood, here are five kids’ picture books that make GREAT use of white space:

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Lee & Low Publishers reports that the “diversity gap” in kids’ books hasn’t changed in the last 18 years – even though 37% of the U.S. population now comprises people of colour (a term I don’t like because it includes purple and cyan, but there you go).

Pale-skinned people like me are slated to become a minority by 2060, yet up to 91% of kids’ books today are about people roughly the same shade as me & my family.

This isn’t good for anyone – especially whitish folks like my kids, who look up from their reading to see a nation far more diverse than anything they see in books.

(True, we live in Israel, not the U.S., but yeah, it’s far more ethnically diverse than anything you might picture!)

The solution isn’t stocking up on books about black kids, written by black writers. Change will only come when our shelves are stocked with TRUE diversity, books that reflect the true cultural context of our lives. Books by every-colour authors, about every-colour kids.

Not all-black or all-white, but a rainbow

Here are five “every-colour” books you can keep on your bookshelf and read to your kids to help them understand what a big, wide, wonderful world this is!

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Commentators are screeching that Rush Limbaugh shouldn’t get an award for a kids’ book he published late last year. What do you think?

Now, I’m not American, never have been. I like to think that makes me more objective about U.S. history, politics and political commentary. So okay, Rush Limbaugh came out with a kids’ book – on that, I’m kind of neutral.

But when I hear everyone shrieking that he shouldn’t even be short-listed for an award for that same book, yeah, I start getting nervous.

Probably the most common advice given to writers: “writers write.” It’s also balderdash.

Which you realize if you consider the flip side of the equation: if you have written anything – an email, an excuse note for your kid’s teacher, a “Lost Kitten” poster – you’re automatically a writer.

Sometimes, even the best advice is wrong. Like when you have a baby and everybody says, “sleep when the baby sleeps.” Of course, it’s great advice in a universe where you have nothing else to do but look after the baby.

Certainly, all the headlines make it seem like he’s performing brain surgery: at 70, the Stones guitarist is a five-time grandfather himself already! Stop the presses! Bring in the Dalai Lama or the Nobel committee!

But no, I’m not excited, and it’s not because he’s 70, either. I think you can write as good a kids’ book at 60, or 70, or 80, as anyone can in their 20s or 30s. So that’s not the reason I’m not digging Keith’s new project – as I’ll explain below.

It’s true – you can write a great kids’ book at any age, if you keep these two key tips in mind to make sure you come up with something great. Keith would do well to read these, but I honestly don’t think he will (hint: he’s not really planning to write the book himself).

I made it up one day while fantasizing with my 6-year-old, who has allergies and also gets colds a LOT of the time. He sniffles a LOT. And I thought out loud – what if you could take a pill and just get rid of all that snot at once?

So I sat down and in a particularly boring Hebrew class, I dreamed up and wrote out the entire story – in verse.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

I have to admit, I debated putting the word “Israeli” in the title of this post. Kids are kids, writers are writers, and illustrators are illustrators. There shouldn’t be any distinctions based on where they live.

But I’m also a happy, proud citizen of my new country, and I love both discovering and sharing the best of its culture. So I approached a couple of well-known authors here and Miri Leshem-Pelly, reigonal advisor of SCBWI’s tiny Israel chapter (SCBWI is the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) actually agreed to “chat” with me. I’m so honoured!

I also discovered a couple of key differences between the children’s writers’ market here and in the U.S. – including a possibly-unhealthy obsession of American publishers. But more about that a bit later on.

Israeli author, universal themes

I’m not sure what comes to mind when I say “Israeli author,” but Miri’s work is so much more universal than whatever that phrase invokes.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

When I started blogging, way back in 2005, “blogging” was a newish word, and not so many people did it. A blog was a way of sharing your interests, usually painfully specific, with perhaps a few dozen readers who may have been mostly family members.

Blogging has changed. A lot.

1. A decade ago, “monetize” was a joke. Today, it’s the primary reason someone starts a blog. Many people start blogs just to drive traffic to another blog, which then, in turn, drives traffic to a main marketing site where the big sell takes place – an ebook, an online “course,” or some collection of substandard products. And sometimes, there isn’t even a “big sell,” the blogs generate money on their own, through ad revenue – it’s their sole raison d'être.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Realizing for the first time that my kid is turning 20 this year (a “duh” moment, because he turned 19 last year!), I decided to do something “historical.” But then I did the math wrong and pulled together a quick roundup of kids’ books from 1984 that are still great today. That’s 30, mom, not 20.

But never mind! I’m happy I did… it’s been a great chance to rediscover some old favourites.